Say Goodbye to Sleeping in Trees

My blog informs me that the last time I posted was on July 17th. Dear me, that was a while ago. Please, accept my apologies. Here they are. My apologies.

Here's a little summer round-up. Let me introduce pro's and con's.

Pro's

Friends
I think everybody can pretty much agree that friendship is awesome. And friendship is equally awesome when you're surrounded by it, immersed deeply in its velvet folds, for a little under three months. It was great being on my own for a few months, away from my parents with a paying job. It was fun, to say the least.

Living Space
Really huge apartment. Really nice people living in the apartment. $475 a month, plus utilities...steep for my shallow-ass pockets, but about an average rent, I'd say, considering the location. ISLAND KITCHEN. That was a great island.

Performing in the City
My first experience with non-paying fringe theater. Almost certainly not my last. A great time, for realsies. Despite a few snags in the rehearsal process, we really managed to get our shit together for the performances. We even got a few positive reviews in some really off-beat theater publications...I was hoping to come out of the experience with a good quote that I could show to casting agents in future times, but the best mention I got was "Matt Chester is amusing". Not exactly a sterling write-up there. But these are the pros. Let us focus on the positive

Netflix Subscription and Oodles of Free Time
What a fine cinema binge it's been. Since Netflix has such extraordinary variety, I always feel compelled to get the most obscure shit that no upstate NY rental store with any sense of self-preservation would dare to carry. A few of the obscurest titles? How about Werckmeister Harmonies, an extremely slow-moving, black-and-white Romanian film about a small village that gets thrown into chaos after a circus comes to visit. Or Wizards, Ralph Bakshi's WTF-inducing animated fantasy about a post-apocalyptic future where magic re-emerges and evil wizards use Nazi propaganda to motivate their goblin army. Et cetera. Not to mention a few spare titles I got at the library. Did I mention I had friends? 'Cause I manage to keep up with a few when I'm not in a dark room reading subtitles on a TV screen.

Employment
My first job was a pretty warm, inviting environment that payed a very generous $14/h. My second job was in an even warmer, even more inviting environment with people my age that payed an average of a still-okay-for-a-college-student $10/h. Being a Barista is a pretty good deal.

Now for the cons (Boo!)

Money Troubles
The first three weeks in Saratoga were a bad, bad time. I had to pay my first months rent, had to at least begin to pay back Ben for the security deposit he very generously forwarded for me (Ben, if you're reading this, Thank you so very, very much), and had to start buying my own food. My bank account was dwindling fast, and I was having a hard time finding a job. Finally, I found one at Uncommon, but I've still been scrambling for pennies whenever I can. But being an aspiring actor/writer, I guess I've got a whole lot more of this to look forward to.

Girlfriend bein' all Far Away and Shit
It's better than being an ocean away from each other like we were last semester, but a five hour drive is still pretty long. I've seen her a total of six times since I got back from England, each a roughly two-day stretch. I'm extremely looking forward to her being back at school and having sex on a regular basis. Hurray!

No more Oxford Pals
I managed to visit Shari a few weeks after I got back, but none others. And now that school is starting, we're about to blow to the four winds of the earth, with a big new work-load ahead of us. I was hoping to see everyone again at least once before school started, but it seems like that won't happen. Le sigh. Maybe one day *Looks out at the starry sky and begins to sing a song. Song ends.*

Overall, though, a very, very good summer. I will hold it's flame tightly in the palm of my memory...until one day it starts to burn the skin and I will drop it to the ground. That was an alzheimers/senility/death metaphor for y'alls. Enjoy it.